Walls in the desert: fortified enclosures, urbanism and settlement in the ancient Central Asian oasis of Khorezm

The fortified enclosures of Late Iron Age/Antique Khorezm (Chorasmia) (7th/6th century BCE–4th century CE) have been characterised by previous scholars as the urban centres of a centralised, agricultural state, yet there is little evidence that they were permanent, nucleated settlements. Urbanism varies according to regional and temporal contexts, and the Khorezmian fortified sites do not exhibit conventional urban characteristics. The thesis re-interprets the Khorezmian fortified sites and their archaeological landscape, utilizing contemporary theoretical approaches, archaeological legacy data and original field surveys. The paradigm of mobility is used as an interpretive framework, which is more inclusive of the diverse and adaptable subsistence and production strategies employed by ancient Central Asian societies. This study establishes that the large Khorezmian fortified enclosure sites were not urban settlements, largely due to the lack of concentrated, intra-mural habitation, however, they were the equivalent of cities for mobile polities. The major site of Akchakhan-kala (Kazakly-yatkan) and the micro-region surrounding it in the Akcha-darya delta of western Uzbekistan are analysed in detail via new prospection surveys, remote sensing and geophysical investigations. Spatial and temporal analyses clearly identify that settlement occurred in unfortified, low-density, non-nucleated zones along watercourses and supply canals. Different activities were spread around the delta oasis, often in isolated, single-function sites, suggesting that the population was highly mobile. Although the fortified sites performed defensive roles, they were purpose-specific, highly symbolic, monumental complexes located within the low-density settlement zones. The large, fortified enclosure sites were the political, administrative and ceremonial capitals of mobile agro-pastoral societies. In this sense, the Khorezmian enclosure sites present an alternative model to that of nucleated urbanism. This study contributes to the emerging discourse on low-density, Eurasian steppe urbanism and demonstrates that the Khorezmian fortified sites and settlement zones were part of a wider agro-pastoral settlement adaptation prevalent across pre-Islamic Inner Eurasia

Kara-tepe, Karakalpakstan: agropastoralism in a Central Eurasian oasis in the 4th/5th century A.D. transition

This paper reports on the results of archaeological field excavations at the site of Kara-tepe, in the semi-autonomous region of Karakalpakstan in northwestern Uzbekistan. Investigations at the site in 2008–2009 turned up an unusually rich assemblage of remains from a household context. Combined analysis of the household botanical and faunal remains has allowed us to reconstruct the agropastoral practices of local inhabitants in this oasis region during a critical period of social and environmental change in the Early Medieval transition (4th–5th centuries A.D.). The results of the study raise important new questions about agropastoralism in the oases of Central Eurasia, highlighting continuities of practice between oasis and steppe populations, and revealing dynamic changes in these systems over time.none - UCLA Department of Anthropology; none - Carlyle Greenwell Research grant, University of Sydney; none - Near Eastern Archaeology Foundation, University of Sydney; none - UCLA Friends of Archaeology; none - G.F. Dales Foundation; none - Cotsen Institute of Archaeology; none - UCLA Center for European and Eurasian Studies; 7948 - Wenner-Gren Foundation2031-01-0

Archaeological assessment reveals Earth's early transformation through land use

Environmentally transformative human use of land accelerated with the emergence of agriculture, but the extent, trajectory, and implications of these early changes are not well understood. An empirical global assessment of land use from 10,000 years before the present (yr B.P.) to 1850 CE reveals a planet largely transformed by hunter-gatherers, farmers, and pastoralists by 3000 years ago, considerably earlier than the dates in the land-use reconstructions commonly used by Earth scientists. Synthesis of knowledge contributed by more than 250 archaeologists highlighted gaps in archaeological expertise and data quality, which peaked for 2000 yr B.P. and in traditionally studied and wealthier regions. Archaeological reconstruction of global land-use history illuminates the deep roots of Earth's transformation and challenges the emerging Anthropocene paradigm that large-scale anthropogenic global environmental change is mostly a recent phenomenon

Archaeological assessment reveals Earth’s early transformation through land use

Humans began to leave lasting impacts on Earth's surface starting 10,000 to 8000 years ago. Through a synthetic collaboration with archaeologists around the globe, Stephens et al. compiled a comprehensive picture of the trajectory of human land use worldwide during the Holocene (see the Perspective by Roberts). Hunter-gatherers, farmers, and pastoralists transformed the face of Earth earlier and to a greater extent than has been widely appreciated, a transformation that was essentially global by 3000 years before the present.Science, this issue p. 897; see also p. 865Environmentally transformative human use of land accelerated with the emergence of agriculture, but the extent, trajectory, and implications of these early changes are not well understood. An empirical global assessment of land use from 10,000 years before the present (yr B.P.) to 1850 CE reveals a planet largely transformed by hunter-gatherers, farmers, and pastoralists by 3000 years ago, considerably earlier than the dates in the land-use reconstructions commonly used by Earth scientists. Synthesis of knowledge contributed by more than 250 archaeologists highlighted gaps in archaeological expertise and data quality, which peaked for 2000 yr B.P. and in traditionally studied and wealthier regions. Archaeological reconstruction of global land-use history illuminates the deep roots of Earth's transformation and challenges the emerging Anthropocene paradigm that large-scale anthropogenic global environmental change is mostly a recent phenomenon